Episode #640

Gods, Mirrormask, Superball

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Neil Gaiman joins Kurt Andersen to talk about his new novel Anansi Boys. It’s about the two sons of the Afro-Caribbean spider god Anansi, whom Gaiman wrote about in his breakout novel American Gods. Gaiman has also written the new movie Mirrormask, produced by the Jim Henson Company. It’s the story of a teenage compulsive doodler who draws herself into a strange and dangerous world. We’ll talk with Gaiman about how fantasy is becoming more respectable these days.

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Kurt Andersen talks with Neil Gaiman about writing the new film Mirrormask, produced by the Jim Henson Company. Gaiman shares his insights from raising teenage daughters, and describes what it’s like to work in the Henson family home, where old Muppets are put to rest in the laundry ...

A god walks into a bar, flirts with the tourists, and has a heart attack singing karaoke, leaving his two sons to stumble into a conflict older than civilization. Gaiman explains how his new book Anansi Boys is not really a fantasy novel — it's a comedy inspired by P.G. ...

Composer Armando Bayolo had two great epiphanies in his musical life — John Williams' Star Wars score, and a long, dense, Minimalist piece using hammers by Louis Andriessen, the Steve Reich of the Netherlands. Produced by David Krasnow.

For the first time in many years, Kurt finds himself laughing out loud at a new network TV sitcom. My Name is Earl manages to balance coarse and offensive. At the same time it's brilliant and funny — something we don't see on broadcast TV anymore.